Flying

HyperMach Aerospace has announced that its 20-seat supersonic business jet, SonicStar, will be able to fly at Mach 4.0. This is faster than the originally announced top speed of Mach 3.6. At Mach 4, the SonicStar would be able to travel from New York to Dubai in just 2 hours 20 minutes.

Having completed construction of its 263,000- square-foot production facility in Greensboro, N.C., earlier this year, Honda Aircraft has been busy building more HondaJets, accelerating the flight-test program and preparing to ramp up the assembly line for Honda's first foray into the aviation market.

High-performance piston aircraft don't like operating much above 18,000 feet and to get them to do so you have to outfit them with temperamental accessories such as superchargers, turbochargers and intercoolers that are prone to break, shorten an engine's useful life or both.

Each of the major companies in the fractional-share business claims to be number one at something, the point being that it is the smartest choice for you. We investigated some of these claims–all of which we found on the providers' Web sites–to see how well they stand up to scrutiny.

You can get it at the coffee shop, on your smartphone, even in coach on an airliner. So why is it so difficult to get Wi-Fi on the jet you charter? One reason is that most chartered aircraft still lack broadband access.

As the PC half of a mixed marriage, I usually don't pay attention to Apple products. So I was nonplussed to find myself harrumphing along with so many others after the debut of the iPad in April of last year. "Doesn't do anything any other tablet can't do," I thought.

A friend once recounted his story of a jump-seat ride aboard an Aeroflot airlines Tu-154 during the 1980s. After the Russian trijet had reached cruise altitude, the flight crew broke out a bottle of sherry and began celebrating, because they had managed to survive another takeoff in an airplane not known for its reliability.